The present invention relates generally to a parameter setting technique for use in music performance apparatus, such as electronic musical instruments, which can carry out a wide variety of music performances by variably setting various parameters, and more particularly a technique which is capable of setting, via a very simple setting operation, parameters suited for any given performance style selected.
Electronic musical instrument known today are capable of synthesizing a wide variety of tones that cannot be expressed by natural musical instruments, not to mention human voices. In these electronic musical instruments, there is a need to set various parameters in order to generate desired tones. The simplest form of conventionally-known electronic musical instrument, such as a piano, electric piano or organ, is provided with tone color setting keys so that the color (timbre) of each tone to be generated by the musical instrument can be varied to a desired one by activating a selected one of the tone-color setting keys. It has also been known to preset settings of a plurality of draw-bar and feet operators so as to selectively realize a desired tone color. However, along with the progressive advance in the electronic musical instrument technology, an increasing number of electronic musical instruments have been constructed to provide, in addition to the tone color selection, various effect sounds and additional performances, such as accompaniment and percussion performances, in response to a performance operation by a human player or user. However, each time any one of such additional performances is to be executed, it is necessary for the player or user to manually set performance parameters, pertaining to the additional performance, one by one. Further, whereas it had been conventional to include tone color data in the header portion or the like of automatic performance data, the tone color data is applied solely to the automatic performance data in question.
For example, in a situation where settings are to be made in an electronic musical instrument such that the electronic musical instrument is used for a piano performance, a chord part (i.e., left-hand accompaniment part) is performed via an automatic performance apparatus and a melody part (i.e., right-hand performance part) is performed by a user""s manual operation on a keyboard, the following setting operation has to be made. First, one of multiple different sets of automatic performance data (i.e., data corresponding to the left-hand performance part) which is to be performed has to be selected by means of an automatic-performance-data selecting switch or the like. Then, a predetermined switch has to be operated to set a synchronization start such that the selected set of automatic performance data starts being performed in synchronism with a start of the manual performance on the keyboard. After that, a tone color to be sounded by the keyboard performance is selectively set via a manual tone-color selecting switch in accordance with tone colors set for the individual performance parts of the selected automatic performance data set. In the past, the necessary settings has to be made in the electronic musical instruments through such a series of cumbersome operation. In normal cases, each set of automatic performance data comprises a plurality of performance parts (or a plurality of tracks), so that when only a predetermined one of the performance parts is to be automatically performed, there would arise another need to make additional settings, by use of a display panel or the like, to mute or silence every other performance part that is not to be automatically performed.
Further, because there has been a tendency for the present-day electronic musical instruments to be equipped with highly sophisticated functions to provide so-called xe2x80x9chigh-performance electronic musical instrumentsxe2x80x9d, an increasing number of varieties of performance parameter have to be set and the user himself (herself) must be throughly familiar with suitable performance parameters and a suitable way of setting these performance parameters in order to generate tones appropriately as desired. Even in cases where the user is already familiar with the suitable performance parameters and the suitable way of setting these performance parameters and when setting are to be made for the entire electronic musical instrument corresponding to or approximating a user-desired natural musical instrument, it would be necessary for the user to take the trouble to make the necessary settings one by one and the cumbersomeness of the setting operation would be the same as normally encountered by the less sophisticated prior techniques. Particularly, such a difficult and cumbersome setting operation is a significant problem for beginners who have never experienced the performance-parameter setting operation, and thus these beginners would feel quite a difficulty in setting the electronic musical instrument for the first time and would often be given a negative impression that high-performance electronic musical instruments are very difficult to handle.
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide a music performance apparatus which is capable of making various settings for manual and automatic performances suited for a variety of instrument styles.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a music performance apparatus which allows even a beginner to readily set, through a very simple operation, performance parameters suited for various performance styles in a high-performance electronic musical instrument, or a setting apparatus and method for use in such a music performance apparatus.
In order to accomplish the above-mentioned objects, the present invention provides a music performance apparatus which comprises: a manual performance operator; an instrument style selector that is used to select a desired instrument style; a memory that stores a plurality of performance data sets; a performance style selector that is used to select a desired one of the performance data sets; and a processor coupled at least with the instrument style selector, the memory and the performance style selector. The processor is adapted to: make selectable, via the performance style selector, some of the performance data sets which correspond to the instrument style selected via the instrument style selector; read out, from the memory, one of the performance data sets made selectable by the processor which has been selected via the performance style selector; execute an automatic performance on the basis of the performance data set read out from the memory; and control a tone based on a manual performance executed via the manual performance operator, with a tonal characteristic corresponding to the instrument style selected via the instrument style selector.
According to the present invention arranged in the above-mentioned manner, in response to user""s selection of a desired instrument style such as a piano style, the processor makes selectable only some of the memory-stored performance data sets which belong to the selected instrument style. Then, a desired one of the performance data sets, having been thus made selectable by the processor, is selected and read out from the memory to execute an automatic performance. On the other hand, a tonal characteristic for a manual performance is set to the one corresponding to the selected instrument style. In this way, selection of the automatic performance suited for the desired instrument style and setting of the tonal characteristic for the manual performance can be made with utmost ease. As a consequence, in executing an ensemble of manual and automatic performances, even a beginner can readily select and set various necessary musical factors, such as a tone color and performance pattern, in an appropriate manner.
The manual performance operator in the present invention may comprise a keyboard including a plurality of keys, and the performance style selector may share predetermined ones of the keys of the keyboard with the manual performance. These predetermined keys are allowed to function as the above-mentioned performance style selector, in response to selection of the instrument style via the instrument style selector. Further, the memory may have prestored therein a plurality of automatic performance data sets and tone setting parameters of a plurality of performance styles, in corresponding relation to a plurality of the instrument styles. Desired one of the performance styles that belong to the instrument style selected via the instrument style selector is made selectable via the performance style selector. The processor is adapted for reading out the automatic performance data set and tone setting parameters from the memory in accordance with the performance style selected via the performance style selector and controlling, in accordance with the tone setting parameters read out from the memory, the tone based on the manual performance executed via the manual performance operator, with the result that the tone based on the manual performance is controlled with the tonal characteristic corresponding to the instrument style selected via the instrument style selector.
Further, the music performance apparatus may further comprise a selector that selects a demonstration performance, and in response to selection of the demonstration performance via the selector, the processor may read out, from the memory, the automatic performance data set corresponding to the performance style selected via the performance style selector and execute an automatic performance corresponding to the selected performance style on the basis of the read-out automatic performance data set. In this way, details of the tone setting parameters, such as a tone color, which are automatically selected and set in accordance with the performance style can be confirmed through the demonstration performance. On the basis of the confirmation through the demonstration performance, the user can appropriately change the details of the automatically-set tone color and other tone setting parameters, through a manual operation, in case the details are not satisfactory.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a music performance apparatus which comprises: a manual performance operator; a selecting device that selects a desired performance style from among a plurality of performance styles; a memory that stores data including tone setting parameters and automatic performance data sets in corresponding relation to the plurality of performance styles, the tone setting parameters including manual performance tone setting parameters that are suited at least for the plurality of performance styles; and a processor coupled at least with the selecting device and the memory, the processor adapted to read out, from the memory, the tone setting parameters corresponding to the performance style selected via the selecting device and control, in accordance with the manual performance tone setting parameters read out from the memory, a tone based on a manual performance executed via the manual performance operator.
The tone setting parameters stored in the memory in corresponding relation to the plurality of performance styles include manual performance tone setting parameters that are suited at least for the plurality of performance styles. Thus, once a performance style is selected for a desired automatic performance, not only the automatic performance data set but also the manual performance tone setting parameters suited for the selected performance style can be automatically selected and read out from the memory, and a controlling characteristic of a tone based on a manual performance executed via the performance operator (e.g., keyboard) is set in accordance with the read-out manual performance tone setting parameters. Therefore, when the user selects a desired performance style for an automatic performance, the user does not have to make a separate parameter setting operation for the manual performance that is to be executed along with the automatic performance. Namely, the manual performance tone setting parameters suited for the selected performance style are read out from the memory and then set for execution of the manual performance. This inventive arrangement greatly facilitates the parameter setting operation in the electronic musical instrument. Among the tone setting parameters defined by the performance style are, for example, an automatic performance tempo, a keyboard region split position for properly using melody and accompaniment parts on the keyboard and a tone color of each performance part. Examples of the manual performance tone setting parameters include a tone color of the melody part. In this case, the tone color data is possessed by the music performance apparatus although the automatic performance data for the melody part may not be possessed by the music performance apparatus, so that a tone color of each tone manually performed on the keyboard can be set automatically on the basis of the tone color data of the melody part. As another example, when a mode to manually perform the melody part is selected, the automatic performance data for the melody part may be muted, i.e., prevented from being sounded, even in the case where the automatic performance data for the melody part are possessed by the music performance apparatus, so that the manual performance on the keyboard becomes a melody performance. In this case, the performance of the accompaniment part is executed automatically on the basis of the automatic performance data.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a setting apparatus for use in an electronic music performance apparatus, which comprises: a manual setting device that sets parameters for controlling a tone to be generated via the electronic music performance apparatus; a selecting device that selects a desired instrument style from among a plurality of instrument styles; a memory that stores at least tone setting parameters in corresponding relation to the plurality of instrument styles, the tone setting parameters including tone setting parameters corresponding to the parameters capable of being set via the manual setting device; and a processor coupled at least with the manual setting device, the selecting device and the memory, the processor adapted to read out, from the memory, the tone setting parameters corresponding to the instrument style selected via the selecting device and change, in accordance with the read-out tone setting parameters, contents of the parameters set via the manual setting device in such a manner that parameter settings in the whole of the electronic music performance apparatus are adjusted to contents corresponding to the selected instrument style. According to this invention, only selecting a desired instrument style can automatically set the parameters in the entire electronic music performance apparatus (e.g., electronic keyboard instrument) to those corresponding to the selected instrument style. Thus, there is no need to set the individual parameters, and the necessary parameter setting operation can be greatly facilitated. Further, even a beginner can readily set parameters for the entire electronic musical instrument which correspond to a desired instrument style.
The present invention may be constructed and implemented not only as the above-mentioned apparatus invention but also as a method invention. The method may be arranged and implemented as a program for execution by a computer, microprocessor or the like, as well as a machine-readable storage medium storing such a program. Further, the hardware implementing the present invention may comprise a combination of logic circuitry and gate array or a fixed hardware device including an integrated circuit, without being necessarily limited to a programmable facility such as a computer or microprocessor. Stated differently, the processor in the inventive apparatus may be a non-programmable processor or control unit only having a fixed processing function, not to mention a programmable processor such as a computer or microprocessor. Further, the electronic musical instrument embodying the present invention may be of any other type than the keyboard type. Furthermore, the music performance apparatus of the present invention may be a personal computer so programmed as to be capable of music performance, rather than being constructed as an electronic musical instrument. Moreover, the music performance apparatus of the present invention may be a karaoke apparatus, game apparatus, cellular phone or any other type of multimedia equipment. Further, it should be noted that the terms xe2x80x9cmanual performancexe2x80x9d as used in the context of the present invention refer not only to a form of performance executed by operating keys with a human player""s hand but also to other forms of performance executed using a player""s foot or other part of his or her body.